


Rejected

by SilverMoonSky



Series: Ladynoir July 2020 [5]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Needs a Hug, F/M, I guess it’s heartbreaking though, It’s not really fluff but not really angst either, Ladynoir July, Ladynoir July 2020, Pre-Reveal Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Rejection, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25102504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMoonSky/pseuds/SilverMoonSky
Summary: This had happened to him dozens of times. As Chat swung across Paris, keeping an eye out for trouble, he recalled each and every time Ladybug rejected him. Whenever it happened, Chat would think the blow would be slightly softer, that it wouldn’t hit as hard because he already knew the answer. He knew he was going to get rejected, after all. It shouldn’t have sent a fresh wave of pain all over again.Spoiler alert: it did.Written for Day 6: Rose for Ladynoir July.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: Ladynoir July 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1812397
Comments: 17
Kudos: 60





	Rejected

**Author's Note:**

> Oh look, the title says it all :P I was working on day 5 (which would be the second chapter to Thirty-Six Questions) when I realized I wouldn’t get it done in time, so I just yeeted this out in two hours :P Hopefully, chapter 2 for that will be up tomorrow!
> 
> Enjoy :)

_ “Good evening, my lady,” Chat said, walking up to her and taking one of her hands in his. “How are you doing tonight?” He pressed his lips to her knuckles. _

__ _ Ladybug playfully rolled her eyes and took her hand away from him, booping him on the nose. “You’re in a good mood today.” _

__ _ Chat grinned. “Of course I am, bugaboo. I’m on patrol with you.” _

__ _ “Your enthusiasm will never cease to surprise me.” Ladybug chuckled before turning away. “Let’s get patrol started, shall we?” _

__ _ “You know I’ll follow you to the ends of the world.” Chat winked, and Ladybug groaned, though she didn’t necessarily look annoyed. _

__ _ “Alright, that’s enough, minou. Patrol isn’t going to do itself.” _

__ _ And with that, Ladybug grabbed her yo-yo and swung off the Eiffel Tower. Chat gazed after her for a few seconds before taking about his baton and following her. _

Ladybug fumed as she played the clip for what seemed like the millionth time that night. The two of them were currently on the Eiffel Tower. Chat was patiently waiting for Ladybug to tell them to begin patrol, but instead she was going on a rampage about the clip that had gone viral last night.

“I can’t believe it!” she hissed. “How the hell did this person manage to capture this footage? We were up on the Eiffel Tower! The sound quality shouldn’t even be this good!”

Chat shrugged.  _ “Purrhaps _ they’re a die-hard fan who was willing to scale up the entire monument to get footage of us.”

Ladybug clenched her yo-yo. “If they wanted footage of us, they could’ve just asked for an interview, or gotten footage during akuma battles like everyone else,” she muttered. “Everyone  _ knows _ not to bother us during patrols.”

Chat frowned. “Maybe we should make that clearer.”

“It’s clear enough.” Ladybug huffed and closed her yo-yo. “I can’t believe that video is all over the internet now.”

“It’s not too bad,” Chat pointed out. “It could’ve been much worse.”

“Worse? They’re debating our  _ relationship _ status, Chat! Haven’t you seen everything they’re saying?”

Oh, he had. Between Alya—who was slightly salty she hadn’t been the one to capture the video—most of his class, the tabloids, and televisions anchors, he hadn’t  _ not _ had a chance to hear what everyone said. Some claimed it was so obvious Ladybug and Chat Noir were dating. Others said that Ladybug was leading Chat on and needed to stop. But either way,  _ everyone _ suddenly seemed to have an opinion on their relationship status. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

“You can’t take it to heart, Ladybug. We’re superheroes; this isn’t the first time people have speculated things about us. You just have to ignore it.”

“How can I ignore it?” Ladybug threw her arms up into the air. “It’s  _ everywhere! _ Our relationship status is all my best friend talks about since the video went viral. Then it’s my classmates, people on television, even my parents!”

“Maybe you should tell them to stop?” he supplied, though he knew it wasn’t helpful. From his own experience, people weren’t going to stop talking until the issue was resolved or died down.

“It’s not even that they’re talking about it that bothers me,” Ladybug said. “It’s just that. . . .” she trailed off, suddenly silent.

“It’s that what?”

She looked away from him. “You’re my best friend, Chat,” Ladybug whispered. At her side, she clenched a fist.

He heard the same words even before she said them. Chat inhaled sharply, feeling something within him shatter as he waited, waited for the inevitable—

“I just don’t see you that way.”

A fresh, sharp wave of hurt cut through him. He’d known that she didn’t, knew that she didn’t have feelings for him, and yet. . . .

It still didn’t stop him from feeling like his heart had broken all over again.

Chat pursed his lips. “Oh.”

Ladybug opened her mouth as if she was going to say something else, but clamped it shut. “Patrol,” she mumbled, and took out her yo-yo, swinging away before he had the chance to say anything.

Chat watched her go, taking out his own baton. “Right,” he muttered under his breath. He turned away, deciding to take the west side of the city rather than following her.

This had happened to him dozens of times. As Chat swung across Paris, keeping an eye out for trouble, he recalled each and every time Ladybug rejected him. Whenever it happened, Chat would think the blow would be slightly softer, that it wouldn’t hit as hard because he already knew the answer. He  _ knew _ he was going to get rejected, after all. It shouldn’t have sent a fresh wave of pain all over again.

Spoiler alert: it did.

But really, he shouldn’t have expected anything different. Ladybug had the other boy; the clip going viral had hit her harder because she was in love with someone else. She didn’t want someone on television analyzing her body language, trying to figure out whether or not she had feelings for her superhero partner, because she  _ didn’t  _ feel anything for him. It was as simple as that.

Chat was passing a rooftop when his eye caught something. He turned his head to see a rooftop garden, filled with all sorts of flowers—including red roses. He suddenly had flashbacks to the first time he’d confessed to her, only for her to turn him down.

He knew Ladybug wasn’t going to return his feelings. He knew she didn’t feel that way about him. And yet. . . .

Without thinking, Chat suddenly bounded over to the rooftop garden and picked one of it’s finest roses. He made a mental note to himself to do something kind for the owner another day. In an instant—his patrol only half-finished—he was rushing back to the Eiffel Tower, hoping that Ladybug would be there, hoping to be able to talk to her and clear things up—

“Ladybug!” Chat called. “Wait!”

Ladybug paused from where she was standing on the Eiffel Tower and turned to look at him. She seemed to have been waiting for him. Later, Chat would realize that she’d doubled back to talk to him, but at the moment he hadn’t noticed. He landed beside her, and her gaze instantly flitted to the rose in his hand.

“Chat. . . .”

Chat gave her a soft smile. “I just. . . . wanted to know something.”

Ladybug looked up at him as he walked closer. “What is it?”

“Would it really be a bad thing?” Chat murmured, so quiet he wasn’t sure she’d even heard him. “Falling in love with me?”

“I—” Ladybug sighed. “Chat, I can’t—”

“Please?” he asked. He looked down at the rose in his hand. “I just. . . . I just want to know.”

Ladybug seemed hesitant. She bit her lip, glancing away from him. “Maybe in a different universe,” she said quietly. “Maybe if the other boy wasn’t here, I could have. But. . . .”

“I get that, Ladybug,” Chat whispered. “In a different universe, maybe I wouldn’t have fallen for you. Maybe I would’ve fallen for the girl that sits behind me in class, or even someone else entirely. But. . . .” he trailed off, twiddling yellow rose in his fingers. “I still feel this way about you. And I can’t change it.”

Ladybug gave him a sad smile. “Oh,  _ chaton, _ I’m not telling you to change how you feel.”

“I know, my lady.” He tentatively smiled back at her. “I know.”

_ So then why does it feel that way every time you reject me? _

She was never intentionally trying to hurt him; Chat  _ knew _ that. He knew that she was just being honest and telling him the truth.

But the truth? It still hurt.

“I do love you, you know.” Ladybug’s gaze locked with his, searching for something within his eyes. “You’re my best friend,  _ minou. _ I don’t know what I’d ever do without you.”

“And I love you too.” Not the same way she loved him, of course. They both knew that. And yet, Chat didn’t pull his gaze away from hers. He made no attempt to avert his eyes, instead letting himself immerse in her stare as he said sincerely, “but like I’ve said, your friendship means everything to me.”

Ladybug’s eyes softened in what looked like guilt. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m sorry I can’t bring myself to return your feelings.”

_ I’m sorry I’m hurting you, _ rang the unspoken words.  _ I’m sorry I keep doing this to you. _

“No,” he whispered back. “Never be sorry for how you feel.”

The two of them stood there, simply looking into each other’s eyes for what felt like an eternity. That was the moment Chat took the rose and handed it to her. Her lips parted.

“Chat, I can’t—”

“Do you know what a yellow rose symbolizes?” Chat asked. Ladybug frowned, but he continued before she could respond. “It represents friendship.”

“Oh,” Ladybug breathed, taking it in her hand. She looked down at it. “I. . . .”

“I’ll always be your friend,” he said. “I may want more, but if you don’t. . . . I respect that, my lady.”

Chat was almost afraid she was going to retaliate by saying she wasn’t his lady.

She didn’t.

Instead, Ladybug leaned over and pressed her lips to his cheek, before pulling back and taking out her yo-yo. With that, for the second time that night, she left without looking back, the yellow rose clutched tightly in her fingers. Chat’s gaze followed her, just like it always did, his heart racing as his hand lifted to touch the place her lips had brushed his skin.

_ Never be sorry for how you feel. _

It was funny how he wasn’t even able to follow his own advice.


End file.
